474 DEER AND DEER-HUNTING IN TEXAS. 




















` the hunter can judge, with considerable probability, where 
the deer will pass when running before the hounds. Thus in 
a given area,—a township we will suppose,—the deer will 
cross a creek in one or two of half a dozen regular crossings; 
or he will pass one of a limited number of known glades or 
openings in the general forest. But in Texas this did not 
hold good. Either the deer had no regular passing places, 
or they. had so indefinite a number that the hunters were not 
able to discover them. Perhaps this difference comes from 
the fact, that running deer with hounds had never been prac- 
tised there, and they had not become used to it. The hun- 
ters were quite at a loss where to station themselves in order 
to get a shot at the chase. 
It may not be irrelevant to describe the process of dress- 
ing deer-skins, which furnish the material used in the 
manufacture of buckskin gloves. There are three principal 
operations: graining, Dining: and smoking. The 
is mechanical; the other two “effect some showed change 
which I am unable to explain satisfactorily. The skin is 
dried and afterwards soaked till it is soft; then the hair 
and grain, or cuticle, are rubbed off with any instrum i 
serving the same purpose as a currier’s knife, the skin being 
spread out on anything answering to the ¢ 
The skin is partially “broken” in this process, 
be stretched and broken still more, while drying, that it may 
“take brains” more readily. The brains of the deer, OF 
similar quantity of another animal will dress the skin.” 
These are thoroughly dissolved in a half 
water. The skin, immersed in it, soon abso 
and becomes thick and spongy. It should 
all directions, carefully, that no spot may be left 
otherwise that spot will remain hard. It is kn ihe 
the SR is brained in this manner. Gather up à fold 
* The same effect is produced by saturating the skin in oil, and then Fanning 1 0t n 
with strong soap and water. The bruised or crushed root of Yucca t famiy, ae 
used; and ae seeds of Sapindus saponaria (soap berry) would, Pr? 
same purpos 




